Archive for the ‘Speyside’ Category

Sweden is a important market for whiskies in general and malts more specifically. Edrington, through their marketing division – Maxxium, arranged last year a very special trip for a few Swedes (and one or two Norwegians I think) – and doing it again this year. Last time it was to Orkney and Highland Park, while this time it’s off to Speyside and The Macallan Distillery.

But first a bit of a recap: The first trip was called “Return of the Vikings” and included a specially chartered flight from Stockholm to Orkney (with a whisky tasting en route), two nights accomodation, dinners, tours, lots of whisky and a “very speical” bottling of Highland Park called – “Return of the Vikings”. All that cost a mere €1200. Participants felt a bit cheated a few months later when the Highland Park Ambassador’s Cask #4 was released, as it was the same cask – though this cost a mere £225 (€284 with the rate at that time). This created a bit of noise which resultet in the participants receiving a further bottle (35cl) called “Return of the Vikings 2” – this time with a expressed guarantee that the rest of the cast would not be bottled as a single cask bottling.

Glenmorangie progresses the sale of Glen Moray Distillery and brand

The Glenmorangie Company announces it has signed a Heads of Terms agreement for the sale of the Glen Moray Distillery in Elgin and the Glen Moray single malt Scotch whisky brand with the independent French spirits company, La Martiniquaise.

The sale of the Glen Moray Distillery represents an important part of The Glenmorangie Company’s re-organisation plans announced in July, which incorporate a major investment programme worth £45 million. The plans will see the Company focus on developing its highly successful, premium, international single malt Scotch whisky brands – Glenmorangie and Ardbeg – to meet the growing demand for single malt whisky in key and emerging markets such as Asia, Europe and the USA.

The Glen Moray Distillery will be sold as a going concern. It is expected that all the existing employees will transfer to the new owners as part of the sale agreement.

The deal is expected to formally complete before the end of October.

La Martiniquaise is a major spirits group in France. The Company, which is headquartered near Paris, already has significant Scotch whisky operations at Bathgate, West Lothian where Glen Turner single malt and Label 5 blended Scotch whisky are bottled – both leading Scotch whisky brands in France.

Chief Executive of The Glenmorangie Company, Paul Neep said: “We believe that La Martiniquaise will provide an excellent ‘home’ for the Distillery, the brand and its employees and they will continue to develop and expand the Glen Moray brand.”

Glen Moray Distillery was originally built as a brewery in 1831 and was converted to a distillery in 1897. The Glenmorangie Company has owned the distillery since 1920.

I’ve thought of making a thing about Distillery of the Month (DotM), and with a new (for us) distillery making it’s way onto the Norwegian market, this is as good a time as any. First distillery out of the blocks is the Speyside distillery Tomintoul.